A friend asked me today "With all your word knowledge and connections, can you solve a problem I've been chewing over for quite a while? What is the collective noun for wizards? I know it's a coven of witches, but what do you get of wizards??"

Well, my knowledge (on this) is zilch, and you, folks, are those "connections" he speaks of. So, please, for the sake of my reputation, not to mention your own, roll up your sleeves, put on those thinking caps and come up with an answer.

And in partial non-response (perhaps I mean nonsense response) to the question, here's a good site that I Googled in my attempt to answer him:
http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/ Just don't get side-tracked from your mission by the cleverness there.

What is the collective noun for wizards?

In honour of the most financially successful of all wizards, how about a kiln?

a conventicle of wizards (serious)
a conjuring of wizards (jocoserious)
a spelling... nah

I like 'conventicle'.
I imagine them standing round in a circle so I might say:
'a round of wizards'
'a ring of wizards'
or
back to the Celtic theme and Druids who were often sages, shamans (or shamen :-) and mystics maybe:
'an order of wizards'
... o.k., o.k. .... maybe not
Come to think of it, were/are wizards not for the most part Einzelgaenger?

No answer to be found in the Harry Potter books ?

I think it was in the late 1700's, it was a sort of parlour game to make up words for different groups of animals. Only a small number of the ones proposed at that time are still current. Perhaps some one of our learned participants can remember the source which eludes me.

You are right, wwh, the British upper crust amused themselves with creating witty collective nouns, mostly for animals subject to the hunt. They are thus called terms of venery. Some of my favorites include, a parliament of owls, a murder of crows, and a crash of rhinos. There is a wonderful book, An Exhaltation of Larks, which compiles many collective nouns. I'll check the author's name when I get home.

Leaving out most of the story -> I once wrote a letter to a radio station discussing collective nouns, and suggesting one for chocolate penises. If you ever hear the term, a lick of chocolate penises, you'll know from whence it came.

by James Lipton (host of the "Actor's Studio" interviews)

an indifference of waiters
a lot of used-car dealers
an unction of undertakers (for a large group, an extreme unction)
a void of urologists
a pile of proctlogists
an odium of politicians
a pan of reviewers
a conjunction of grammarians
a score of bachelors
etc.

A book of linguaphiles.
A rifle of sharpshooters.
A riding of horsemen.
A trail of hikers.
A house of realtors.
A beaker of chemists.
A script of playwrights.
A font of webmasters.
A lens of photographers.

Somebody stop me, please! If any of the above were the same as in the book, the resemblance is purely coincidental.

Thanks for the suggestions (so far, feel free to keep going). I passed a few of them on to the original inquirer, and was a little bemused to learn that he wanted to use the word to describe his company's latest software product.

Apparently it has a lot of wizards in it!

how about. . .

a cast of wizards
a merl of wizards
a gizzard of wizards
an evocation of wizards
an incantation of wizards
a tome of wizards
a conjuration of wizards
a channel of wizards

ok, I think that's enough for me

A Merlin of Wizards
Somewhere in my memory comes the thought that a Merlin was a chief wizard.
Anyone clear that up for me?
wow

5ME merlion < OFr esmerillon, dim. of esmeril, merlin < OHG smirl, merlin6 a small, dark falcon (Falco columbarius) with a striped, brownish-red breast, of North America and Eurasia
And of course there is the Merlin who arranged for Arthur to become King.

A wandering of wizards?

A wonderment of wizards...

A charm of wizards...

blizzard

Wizards, as a group, are not the most sociable of animals and any collective noun used should take that into account. Words most often used to describe wizards range from fierce, evil, good, benevolent, odd, powerful, ancient and weird; but never ever sociable. As they are often quite egocentric it is not a stretch to believe that any gathering of wizards would be fraught with disagreements and arguments, so here are a few suggestions:

A squabble of wizards
A quarrel of wizards
A crisis of wizards

The one I think is best is: A contradiction of wizards
This conveys both the fact that they just don’t pal around with one another and if forced to, will not agree on anything.

if forced to, will not agree on anything

A Wizard A Dayleurs?

someone brought up Harry Potter. well, Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has this on his letterhead:

Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards

now, confederation just didn't seem right, applied to wizards... BUT...

a league, an alliance (between persons or states; in mod. use only the latter). Formerly also in a bad sense, Conspiracy. [emphasis added]

... therefore and QED: a conspiracy of wizards

... therefore and QED: a conspiracy of wizards

Perfect!
Well done Tsuwm!
wow